I prefer day baseball. It’s gotta be turkey on Thanksgiving. Ham at Christmas.

Otherwise, I’m not a traditionalist. At least, not in the traditional sense.

That may be why J. Otto Seibold’s (Olive the Other Reindeer, Vunce Upon A Time) newest, and most outlandish book tickles my fancy just so.

See, nursery rhymes bore me. The Mouse, I just discovered while reading her Other Goose, doesn’t know 90% of them. That shouldn’t surprise me, because unless she hears about Miss Muffett and Humpy Dumpty in preschool or at Mom mom’s house, she ain’t gonna be hearing ’em at all. Well, not in the traditional way.

Seibold’s left-of-center revamping of the classic rhymes is, I’ll admit, an odd introduction for a young child to Jack & Jill and Jack Be Quick, but she is head-over-heels for these bizarre new tales. The Bear is too. If fact, I haven’t seen the book in a couple of weeks because the two of them have commandeered it. I have heard it though. Big sis reads Other Goose to lil’ sis most every morning before the sun (and I) are fully awake. They laugh at the text and pour over the vivid illustrations, looking for hilarious hidden critters and other minute details common in Seibold’s work.

Is there a better endorsement than that?

Check out some of the pages:

As you can probably tell from the Humpty Dumpty trilogy above, you’ll get happily lost inside the pages of this (and every other) J. Otto Seibold book. There is so much going on on every single page, it’s like sending your eyes on a whirlwind vacation; raindrops, sponges and spoons have faces, cows work on their tans and a tiny mushroom man is ever-present. It’s theater of the absurd, and it’s absurdly fun.

You can enjoy it, marvel at the loopy cartoon illustrations and chuckle at the re-imagined & “re-nurseried” verses, but to really “get” the intended humor of Other Goose you’ll need a traditional nursery rhyme frame of reference. Fortunately, most normal children will have that in their back pocket making Other Goose required reading for kids 2-7.

*******OTHER GOOSE BOOK GIVEAWAY!!!*******

Want a copy of Other Goose for your own book & nursery rhyme collection? One (1) lucky reader is gonna win a copy! To enter, simply comment on this post, follow OWTK on Twitter then tweet about this giveaway, and/or become a Fan of OWTK on Facebook. That’s 3 separate entry methods (please leave separate comments alerting me of your Facebook fandom and Twitter followership – thanks). Giveaway is open to folks in the U.S. and Canada only and will run until 11:59pm ET on December 9th 2010.

*A copy of Other Goose was provided to OWTK for review. The opinions expressed above are honest and unbiased. No arm-twisting took place in the review process.